Forbes- Mark Zuckerberg\u00a0is making the rounds on\u00a0Wall Street\u00a0and as Facebook goes public he will increasingly be confronted with the fast-money hedge funds he appears to have tried to avoid. Hedge funds will play a big role in Facebook\u2019s stock after its initial public offering, but only one hedge fund investor has seriously benefited from the monster valuation increase of Facebook\u2019s privately-held stock.<\/p>\n
Christopher R. Hansen is a little-known hedge fund manager who likes to keep under the radar, but his Facebook investment is poised to make him a more high-profile player and is perhaps even helping to fuel his effort to buy a National Basketball Association team. His Valiant Capital\u00a0Management, a hedge fund firm that he runs out of\u00a0San Francisco, owns 36.3 million shares in Facebook, according to a Facebook filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.<\/p>\n
At $35 per share, the top range of Facebook\u2019s IPO pricing, Valiant\u2019s Facebook stock would be worth $1.27 billion. Valiant probably paid $500 million for the shares, maybe he paid a bit less.<\/p>\n